


i feel you in my heart (& i don't even know you)

by platonics



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Chance Meetings, Coffee Shops, Crushes, F/F, Pre-Relationship, Useless Lesbian Harukawa Maki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 04:28:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20576465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/platonics/pseuds/platonics
Summary: If Kaito had never tried to adopt her like some sort of stray pet, she never would have met Shuichi, and she certainly never would have had any reason to go to his house. Her life would be perfectly normal, with absolutely no hopeless crushes to speak of.





	i feel you in my heart (& i don't even know you)

It started, as all the bizarre things in her life seemed to these days, with Kaito Momota. Maki was sitting in the corner of her usual coffee shop, sipping her espresso and watching him gesture animatedly as he told them about his day, nearly hitting Shuichi in the face in the process. She rolled her eyes and leaned back, beginning to tune him out. Without much effort, his voice blended into the steady rain outside, turning into a pleasant sort of white noise for her thoughts.

She still didn’t understand why Kaito was so fixated on her. They had virtually nothing in common, aside from being in the same agonizingly boring history class. But Kaito didn’t seem to care about things like similarities. The first day of the semester, he’d grabbed her and Shuichi (who was also radically different than both of them), insisting that they should form a study group. It quickly became clear that not much actual studying would happen, but Maki hadn’t been able to escape his clutches regardless. So she supposed the three of them were friends, in a not entirely mutual sort of way.

“Don’t you think so, Harumaki?” Hearing that ridiculous nickname jolted Maki back into awareness. She looked over at Kaito coolly, doing her best to act as if she’d been listening the whole time. 

“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. That was technically the truth. She had no idea what he was talking about. Last she knew, it was something about what it would be like to live on the moon. The idea that he’d be asking for her opinion on the subject was believable enough, but based on the way Shuichi was fidgeting in his seat, it seemed like they might be onto a new subject now.

“It’s fine with me, I suppose,” Shuichi ventured. “It’s not always the most peaceful, but if you’re alright with that...”

“Of course! What’s life without a little excitement?” Kaito was beaming, and while Maki still didn’t quite know what was being discussed, she was getting the idea it was something she wouldn’t like.

“So it’s settled!” he said next, and she felt all her muscles tensing preemptively. “We’ll hang out at Shuichi’s place after class tomorrow.” Well, okay, that wasn’t as bad as it could be. She nodded, shooting a glance out the window. The rain had slowed down. This might be a good time to make her escape.

“Yeah, alright. I’ll be there.” She got to her feet, grabbing her empty cup from the table. “I really have to get home now though. _Some of us _have work to do,” she said pointedly. How Kaito hadn’t flunked out yet as an astronomy major when he seemingly never did homework or studied for tests, Maki had no idea. After dismissing his protests, and acknowledging Shuichi’s more subdued goodbye, she headed out of the coffee shop, wondering what she’d gotten herself into.

* * *

The next day, Kaito was, predictably, running late. Leave it to him to be the one to plan the gathering and then not make his own meeting time. Maki, on the other hand, valued punctuality, and so she stood in front of an unfamiliar house alone. As much as she was annoyed by Kaito, she at least knew him better than she did Shuichi. This was going to be terribly awkward. She could feel it.

Shaking her head, she headed up the walk and climbed the front steps, taking a deep breath before she knocked on the door. The house was rather large, and looked fancier than she would have expected from an ordinary college student like Shuichi. Maybe he still lived with his family like Kaito did? She waited a few moments, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot, and nobody came to the door.

Maki fished her phone out of her pocket, checking for any messages she may have missed. Sure enough, there was a text from Shuichi, about ten minutes old.

**Shuichi: _had to run a quick errand, i’ll be back as soon as i can. feel free to let yourselves in._**

Great. She _really _didn’t feel like she knew the guy well enough to just waltz into his house unannounced, but the alternative was to loiter on his porch for who knows how long, looking like a creep. Silently cursing Kaito for putting her in this situation in the first place, she tried the doorknob. Sure enough, it was unlocked, opening easily. Maki stepped inside.

The first thing she noticed was that Shuichi definitely didn’t live alone. There was a shoe rack beside the door, ostensibly to keep things somewhat organized, but despite the rack only being half-full, there was a wide variety of shoes and boots scattered on the floor around it. If the number alone didn’t give it away, the range of sizes and styles would. There had to be at least three or four people living here, if she had to guess. Maybe more.

And she had no clue who or where any of them were, aside from Shuichi himself. Excellent. 

As she stood there in the entryway, contemplating her next move, a text from Kaito came to mind. She could hardly remember why the topic had come up, but hadn’t he said something about Shuichi having two boyfriends? If she remembered correctly, and if Kaito hadn’t been embellishing the truth, then the boyfriends seemed likely to be the other inhabitants. Even then though, that didn’t seem completely right. Maki had definitely noticed women’s shoes there too, and at the risk of falling into stereotypes, the house seemed too neat to belong to three men. 

With a quiet sigh, she slipped her own shoes off, and began to cautiously walk through the house. Hopefully nobody was home, and she could wait for Shuichi and Kaito with nothing eventful happening. Everything seemed cozy and well-tended, radiating a sense of ‘home’ even though she’d never been there before. Gradually, the tension started to dissipate from her frame. This was much nicer than her own apartment. There was even a gentle piano melody floating through the air, lulling her into relaxation.

Wait a second. Piano? That didn’t sound like it was just a classical music playlist left on or something. It sounded like there was actually someone playing piano in the house. Maki winced. She had no choice but to announce herself now, lest she seem like an intruder.

“Um, hello?” she called out, stopping in the middle of the hallway. “Is anyone home?” The piano music stopped. 

“Yeah? Who’s there?” It was a female voice. Moments later, she could hear the quiet sound of approaching footsteps. 

“Maki Harukawa. I’m...a friend of Shuichi’s, I suppose.” She swallowed thickly, tugging at her hair. The girl standing in front of her was absolutely beautiful. Blonde hair cascaded down past her shoulders, and her expression was so warm and welcoming. More than seemed warranted for greeting a random stranger in (presumably) her house. 

“Oh, nice to meet you,” the girl said, with an expression that seemed to indicate she really meant it. “I’m Kaede Akamatsu. I’m one of his roommates, but I’m sure you already knew that. I’ve heard a lot about you!”

“I assumed, since you’re in his house and all,” Maki said dryly. However, it took an extra couple of moments for the second part of what Kaede said to sink in. She’d heard a lot about her? “I’m...surprised Shuichi’s talked about me. We’re really not that close. We just both ended up getting dragged into Kaito’s bizarre fantasy world. It’s like he thinks we’re strays that need to be adopted or something.”

Kaede giggled, though Maki had no idea what could be funny about what she’d just said. Was _everyone _Shuichi knew like this? That would explain how easily he’d seemed to acclimate to Kaito. Trying to be discreet about it, she checked her phone. How long was she going to have to stand here making small talk?

“If it’s such a pain, then why are you still hanging out with them?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “Really though...He actually thinks you’re pretty cool, Maki. You should think more highly of yourself.” This girl would definitely get along well with Kaito, she thought, crossing her arms and leaning back against the wall. Somehow the boundless optimism was more tolerable coming from her.

“Thanks, I guess,” she muttered. In the silence that stretched out between them for a moment, she thought she could hear voices from across the house, though they were too faint for her to make out what they were saying. Then, there was the distinctive sound of a door closing a little too hard, followed by laughter. Just how many people lived here?

Kaede’s gaze followed hers, which had drifted up towards the ceiling, and she nodded knowingly, gesturing down the hall.

“Would you like some tea or anything while you wait? Shuichi should be home soon,” she promised. “I’m happy to keep you company in the meantime. It...seems like he hasn’t told you very much about what to expect.”

“Is it that obvious?” Now that she was thinking about it, Maki did recall him saying something yesterday about it not always being the most peaceful. She’d dismissed it at the time. Having grown up in an orphanage, she was used to ‘not peaceful.’ However, this wasn’t the straightforward kind of chaos she was used to. She couldn’t even figure out who was in the house, much less their relationships to each other or what they were like. Was this how most college students lived?

Lost in her thoughts, she allowed Kaede to lead her to the kitchen. She trailed along behind, taking in the sight of everything they passed. Was Kaede the source of this homey feeling?

“A lot of people have that sort of look on their face when they visit for the first time,” she said with a laugh, giving Maki a look that instantly made her feel a little more at ease. “Things can be pretty crazy sometimes, but everyone’s amazing. The seven of us are like one big family.”

_Seven? _She took a seat at the counter, trying to wrap her head around that as she watched Kaede begin to prepare the tea. 

“We’d be happy to have you more often too,” she continued, sounding more hesitant than Maki had ever heard her so far. “You know, if you could use a few extra friends. Based on what I’ve heard...I’d love to get a chance to know you better.” When Kaede eventually leaned over to place a steaming mug of tea in front of her, Maki could smell her perfume, something pleasantly floral. That incredibly soft-looking blonde hair brushed against her shoulder, just for an instant. She hated the idea of being the kind of girl who developed a crush at first sight, but she could hardly breathe.

“Maybe I could get your number?” Kaede was holding out something else towards her now — her phone. “If you, uh, ever need a break from Kaito, I’m around.”

With a quick nod of agreement, Maki took the phone from her hand, punching in her number and sending a text to herself so that she’d have Kaede’s as well.

“Yeah. I’ll think about it.” 

As Kaede sat down next to her and began regaling her with stories of all her roommates, she already knew that she’d be taking her up on the offer. In fact, she wouldn’t mind if Shuichi and Kaito didn’t show up at all.

**Author's Note:**

> oof this was a little rushed bc it was for a prompt that was due soon but,, there's a decent chance i'll write more for this au in the future! i have some stuff in mind :3c
> 
> & shuichi's bfs are kokichi and rantaro if anyone wanted to know


End file.
